Where does the word “Coconut” come from and What does Coconut mean in Portuguese?

December 18, 2019 by Karen Hill

Though regarded as slang, it is fitting, nevertheless, to use the word coconut in reference to one’s head, for it was from that that the nut had its name.

Portuguese explorers of the fifteenth century, sailing around Africa, found this fruit growing upon islands of the Indian Ocean.

Not only was the nut about the size and shape of a small head, but the addition of the three dark hollows at its base conveyed so strongly the resemblance to a grinning face as to impel the explorers to call it “a grinning face,” which is what coco means in Portuguese.